Hi all - I just finished my second year of law school and I recently wrote a piece based on personal experience on how to choose a law school. If I could do it all again, I might have chosen differently due to a number of factors. I hope this article can help you, and if you have any questions after reading, feel free to message me! Good luck!

kmp84 wrote:Hi all - I just finished my second year of law school and I recently wrote a piece based on personal experience on how to choose a law school. If I could do it all again, I might have chosen differently due to a number of factors. I hope this article can help you, and if you have any questions after reading, feel free to message me! Good luck!

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You put cost 11 spots lower in importance than public vs private, a factor that you didn't even expand on as to why the difference might be important. Public v Private is largely irrelevant in law school considering how so many of these law schools have their own huge endowments. What other differences are there in this designation other than funding? There are private football schools, public non-football schools, poorer private schools and wealthy public schools, private party schools, public nerdy schools, and so on. Maybe you should just say "atmosphere" and "financial strength" should be considered, but even those would be largely nebulous suggestions.

Why is cost so unimportant to you, and why should it be to prospective law students? For many this is purely (or largely) a cost-benefit analysis.

I honestly didn't find this article helpful to a prospective law student...it just threw a bunch of things out there to consider without giving any way to analyze and weigh the importance of each category.

Last edited by Regionality on Wed Jun 09, 2010 8:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

With all due respect, you are not yet a law student and therefore have not seen the issues important to students firsthand. I am 2/3 of the way through. Looking from the outside in is completely different. Your views do not represent all prospective students either.

Also, those topics are NOT put in order of importance. What is most important to one student is NOT most important to another. Cost was not an issue for me, for example. If you want extensive descriptions, you will need to find a book, not a brief article. This is just an overview.

Any positive remarks are appreciated from all, and I am happy to answer questions if you PM me.

Just FYI, this article is more extensive than the info you will find on LSAC's website about how to choose a school.

kmp84 wrote:With all due respect, you are not yet a law student and therefore have not seen the issues important to students firsthand. I am 2/3 of the way through. Looking from the outside in is completely different. Your views do not represent all prospective students either.

Also, those topics are NOT put in order of importance. What is most important to one student is NOT most important to another. Cost was not an issue for me, for example. If you want extensive descriptions, you will need to find a book, not a brief article. This is just an overview.

Any positive remarks are appreciated from all, and I am happy to answer questions if you PM me.

Just FYI, this article is more extensive than the info you will find on LSAC's website about how to choose a school.

"13. Cost: I placed this lower on the list because I personally believe that it is important to weigh the combination of all the factors before considering the cost"

This sentence shows that you put them in descending order of importance, or at least you did with #13.

Also what kind of author only wants positive comments? Especially when it may not be the best article ever written.

Last edited by Regionality on Wed Jun 09, 2010 8:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

MrKappus wrote:In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

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Ok, whatever dude. Props to him for having the guts to show TLS his article. I still found it unhelpful, and I'm the author's exact target audience. I'm not the type to criticize just because there's something to criticize...the article was unhelpful and in some cases irresponsible, IMO.

Regionality wrote:Ok, whatever dude. Props to him for having the guts to show TLS his article. I still found it unhelpful, and I'm the author's exact target audience. I'm not the type to criticize just because there's something to criticize...the article was unhelpful and in some cases irresponsible, IMO.

OP, out of curiosity, where do you go to law school? What kind of law do you want to practice? What kind of summer jobs have/did you have? How much debt are you taking out? Do you have parental support?

I ask because I'm interested how your personal experience at law school has affected these perspectives, and I think it could prove beneficial to understand your perspectives in the context of your legal education.

Edit: I see you went to Duquense, but I'm still interested in the rest of my questions.

ehh. I'm 2/3 done with law school and I find it profoundly unhelpful to an entering student. It reads more like a generic pamphlet than some meaningful advice. If you're going to make it generic you might as well just weigh cost vs. rank.

rando wrote:ehh. I'm 2/3 done with law school and I find it profoundly unhelpful to an entering student. It reads more like a generic pamphlet than some meaningful advice. If you're going to make it generic you might as well just weigh cost vs. rank.

Exactly. It sounds like something in one of those "Princeton Review's Top 186 Law Schools." I'll be helpful and post exactly what I felt was lacking:

1. ABA Accreditation: This is barely worth mentioning. Anybody who has looked into the process already understands this and it can probably be left out.

2. Public vs Private: You talk about cost, which is good, but you really shouldn't talk about it here if you already have a section on Cost. "You'll be able to find certain things at one," WTF does that even mean. It isn't helpful and is just plain useless.

3. Location: You talk about networking, which is all well and good, but you miss the most important thing: that most schools outside of the T14 are incredibly regional, especially as you get down the rankings.

4. Ranking: I agree with the general point, but probably worth noting here is that some schools are national (i.e. T14) and some schools are regional powers (i.e. Fordham, GW, etc) that is not adequately expressed in the rankings. And when advocating for a TTTT, you should note that most are terrible, though there are some diamonds in the rough.

5. Reputation: Decent point but not stated clearly enough what the real factor is (employment prospects).

6. Programs: This is not a reason to choose one school over another unless they are very similar schools. You should note this.

7. Faculty: This is not a reason to choose one school over another unless they are very similar schools. You should note this.

8. Courses: This is just a horrible reason.

9. Bar Test: Horrible reason.

10. Bar Passage Rate: Horrible reason. If you are looking at schools where there is a drastic bar passage rate difference, one of them probably has a lot of other things already wrong with it (mainly employment prospects).

11. Class Size: Meh. This ignores the more general entire 1L class size which may be important to people (i.e. huge classes at H/GULC whereas small ones at Y/S for example).

12. Grading: What does it really matter? It's all curved and this is not really a reason to choose a school over another.

13. Cost: Stupid reason for putting it so low on the list. Also doesn't go into how much your average JD costs compared to employment chances at certain jobs which pay salaries that make it reasonable to pay off. Ignores LRAP which I might factor into the thoughts of "cost."

14. Student Orgs: Horrible reason.

15. Opinions: Okay.

The problem is you miss the most important part about why to choose a school: EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS.

kmp84 wrote:Hi all - I just finished my second year of law school and I recently wrote a piece based on personal experience on how to choose a law school. If I could do it all again, I might have chosen differently due to a number of factors. I hope this article can help you, and if you have any questions after reading, feel free to message me! Good luck!

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2. Public vs. Private: Some students don't have a preference, but often the public schools don't cost so much. Sometimes you'll be able to find certain things at one that you can't find at the other, but it's all about your personal preferences.

Public v. Private is a poor proxy for cost if that's what you're getting at as a factor.